Work underway for Charging Stations at Udhampur, Katra, Kathua
Sanjeev K Sharma
JAMMU, Feb 16: While the small e-buses of 9 metre length are seen running on Jammu roads and all the 75 such vehicles have reached here, the complete shipment of other batch of 25 such big e-buses of 12 metre length designated for Jammu-Udhampur, Jammu-Katra and Jammu-Kathua routes will reach Jammu by February 2024 end.
Sources informed that as of now 15 such e-buses with high back seats and seating capacity of 34 passengers per vehicle have reached Jammu.
These emission free big e-buses would also be run by Jammu Smart City Limited (JSCL) like the small e-buses.
“So far State Transport Authority (STA) approval for these buses under the name TATA Ultra EV Bus has been received but still registration of these vehicles is pending and without registration and insurance JSCL cannot take these vehicles on roads,” sources said.
They further said that TATA Company which is supplying these buses will get registration of these vehicles done from the transport authorities.
More sources informed that these buses have been brought on Gross Cost Contract (GCC) with TATA which will run these vehicles for 12 years for JSCL and will be paid cost per km only while the driver will also be from TATA and the Company will also bear the maintenance and electricity costs of these vehicles.
They also said that Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles (FAME) subsidy by Government of India for these vehicles have been passed on to TATA by JSCL.
When contacted Rahul Yadav, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) JSCL informed that work is underway for establishing the charging stations for big e-buses at Udhampur, Kathua and Katra while charging station at Jammu is successfully working and is charging the e-buses running on Jammu roads in routine.
“In Katra, Power Development Department (PDD) is working on the charging station while at Kathua PDD sub-station has been established through which power supply will be made available after which charging points will be installed and major work in this regard is underway while the third charging station is being established in Udhampur,” he maintained adding: “After all these procedures are complete, there will be a trial run for these vehicles at least for a week before putting these big e-buses for public use.”
Yadav also informed that once charged, the big e-buses can run upto 225 kms on single charging while small e-buses of 9 metre length can only cover a distance of 180 km on single charging.
Sources informed that fare for these vehicles will be as is there for the e-buses running on Jammu roads and so far there is no discount in fare for physically disabled persons, senior citizens and women.
All the e-buses running in Jammu and those which will soon ferry between Jammu-Katra, Jammu-Udhampur and Jammu-Kathua are air conditioned vehicles equipped with CCTV cams, lifts for physically challenged people to enter and de-board, live tracking and many more facilities.
Sources informed that for using the services of big e-buses, there will be a system similar for doing so in case of small e-buses wherein a provision of digital tickets through mobile ticketing will be in place and making payments using National Common Mobility Card on the pattern of doing so in metros will also be there and this Card can also be used across the country to pay the fare.
“The tickets can also be purchased using mobile phone but payment in cash will be the last preference while payment using digital mode will fetch the travellers with discount of 5 pc also,” they continued.
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